Bolsonaro-Biden deal to protect the Amazon stalls amid pressure

Indigenous and environmental leaders, and US lawmakers urge Joe Biden to condition aid on action to stem deforestation.

Sao Paulo, Brazil – Brazil’s government wants billions of dollars upfront from the United States and other wealthy nations to protect its Amazon rainforest, a crucial natural bulwark in the fight against climate change. But Indigenous leaders, climate activists and a group of US Democratic senators have warned US President Joe Biden not to hand over any cash to the government of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right populist president, under whom deforestation has soared. “The current Brazilian government is simply not to be trusted,” Sonia Guajajara, coordinator of Brazil’s Articulation of Indigenous Peoples (APIB), an Indigenous advocacy collective, told Al Jazeera.